by Allan Joyal
“Why?” Alysia asked.
“That’s what quite a few people probably wonder,” Roquel said from the open doorway. The experienced adventurer had a heavy fur-lined cloak wrapped around her body as she slipped into the room.
“Is Dared coming?” Faestari asked.
“He is. Kalacho and Gee’if are making sure we have all our supplies. I’m guessing that you are about to tell me that it’s time to head out,” Roquel said.
Faestari nodded again. “I just returned from the other dungeon.”
“How?” Roquel asked.
“I took over a rat and ran there,” Faestari said. “And then used the rat body to sneak around. The dungeon appears to have once been a simple kobold lair. Well, not simple, I think it had a massive number of kobolds.”
“And that provided enough mana?” Roquel asked.
“The kobolds are fighting against something. I didn’t manage to get close enough to really see the enemy they were fighting. It looked like some squat grey-skinned humanoid race that had superior weaponry. The beings they are fighting keep forcing the kobolds to retreat down their tunnels towards the domain of the dungeon. The dungeon was enhancing kobolds and sending them to join the fight in order to keep the fight outside its domain,” Faestari said.
“And the original awakening of the dungeon must have occurred when the kobolds first encountered whatever they are fighting,” Roquel said. “That explains a few things. The dungeon is going to be spending mana to maintain the kobolds and if they are losing their fight....”
“I think it’s a stalemate right now,” Faestari said. “But many of the kobolds it enhances die outside of its domain so it receives no mana for the deaths. Worse, it only has kobolds as its own creatures, which explains its lack of communication.”
Roquel’s mouth dropped open. “Damn. I have been around a few dungeons, but never considered that. You’re right, most dungeons wake because of fights between humans and the creatures living in the caverns or halls. There is a certain intelligence within them when it wakes. But with this dungeon it might have lacked that necessary resource when it woke.”
Faestari nodded. “That’s what I believe. At least the crystal won’t be too hard to find.”
“Oh?” Roquel asked.
“The dungeon exists as an avatar. It’s the kobold we’ve seen before, but living. The right forearm and hand are stone and hold the crystal in the frozen claw. The rest of the body appears to be that of a regular kobold, but I saw a weave of mana. I think it’s all stone, but for some reason the arm did not change when the dungeon woke. However, the big thing is that the dungeon domain has been unlinked from the crystal. You just have to find the avatar and destroy it,” Faestari said.
Roquel started laughing. “Just?”
“Doesn’t that always work?” Alysia asked.
“Most dungeons never reveal avatars,” Roquel said. “I think Faestari is the first dungeon I’ve met where the avatar comes out to chat like a regular person.”
“Isn’t she one?” Alysia asked naively.
“No,” Faestari said firmly. She crossed her arms over her chest as she sat and looked at the young lady.
Alysia stared at the elven girl avatar that Faestari used. She waited as the silence seemed to expand in the room. Roquel and Salene were both smirking as they watched the young woman try to understand what had been said. Finally, she spoke. “You aren’t?”
Salene reached out again, putting a hand on Alysia’s shoulder. “It’s hard to understand, but that is correct. She isn’t a person, and treating her like one would be dangerous to us.”
“Why?” Alysia asked.
Salene sighed and shook her head. “If you can’t understand that you’ll never succeed as an adventurer. Her existence is something entirely different from your experience. She has no reason to work with us.”
“But she gains strength if adventurers enter. I remember that much,” Alysia complained.
Faestari said nothing. She looked over at Roquel. “How soon until you are ready to go?”
“It’s already past midday,” Roquel said. “And while Narhert did run a couple of wagons up to the ridge where Dared wants to put in an inn after the last storm as a way to clear the land and check on the farmers, most of the trail will require that we traverse across the snow. The plan is to leave in the morning once we have everything.”
Faestari nodded. “I can’t go with you. The other dungeon must realize I left my domain, and now it will be watching to see if I do it again. I’ll try to check in at midday and sundown to help guide you and warn you if it reacts.”
“Can we use the route you took?” Roquel asked.
“I made it using a rat’s body. There are places where you would be far too big to enter some of the passages I ran or the vines I used to cross chasms in the mountains. You’ll have to follow the valley trail almost to Oersteglen and then turn south,” Faestari said.
Faestari looked over at Alysia. “And that could be trouble for another reason. The kobolds that came here. The dungeon sent out two other raiding parties. One headed for Fairview. The other was headed towards South Falls, wherever that is.”
“It’s the last village before you enter a mountain pass after travelling south from Fairview,” Alysia said. “It’s a major trading center for merchants that don’t want to enter Fairview’s territory and deal with the tariffs imposed by the council.”
“Is it well defended?” Faestari asked.
Alysia frowned. “Not really,” she admitted. “Fairview has never been seen as a threat and the guards of South Falls rely on the mountain range to prevent attacks from the south. If the kobolds come at them out of the mountains....”
“Damn,” Roquel said. “Faestari, I think I heard that the kobolds from this dungeon are so enhanced they will die without a supply of mana from it.”
“The males and the warriors are,” Faestari said. “From what I saw when I visited the dungeon ignores the females except it may be making them more fertile.”
Roquel nodded. “I’ll hurry back to the others. It will not be a large group. Gee’if and Kalacho had high standards. We did talk Koristal into coming, but she’s a bit upset about the situation. She doesn’t want to kill innocents.”
“The enhanced kobolds can’t survive without the dungeon,” Faestari said. “But there aren’t too many of them. There are about twenty guarding the gate, but once I went deeper, I saw no kobolds until I found the battle going on deep below.”
“Why?” Alysia asked.
“The kobolds haven’t been doing well in their fight,” Faestari said. “I’m guessing they have been dying in large numbers. The dungeon upgrades any young kobolds and takes them straight to the fight. Some of the female kobolds are noticing and are trying to hide their infants.”
“It truly is mad,” Roquel said.
Faestari nodded sadly. “When I noticed that, I realized that I can’t save the dungeon. It must be brought down, before it starts to grow more powerful.”
“How can it if the kobolds are losing?” Alysia asked.
“The kobolds will eventually win,” Faestari said. “No enemy they are fighting will be able to keep multiplying at a rate that replaces their losses. The dungeon will be able to keep enough kobolds alive to destroy whatever they are fighting eventually. Once it does, it will rapidly start gaining mana.”
Alysia’s face turned pale. “And if it wins, it might send all its kobolds to the surface.”
“Exactly,” Roquel said. “Again, I’ll get the others and we’ll start final preparations. We already have most of the supplies we need. We just needed to know what route to use.”
“I’ll watch over you as I can,” Faestari said. “Thank you again.”
“You shouldn’t be thanking me. This needs to be done,” Roquel said firmly as she turned to leave.
Faestari stood up and carefully walked backwards to her alcove. The door closed up as she sat down and sent her mind back to her main b
ody. It was time to check on her dungeon again.
Chapter 27: The Interruption in the Journey
Four days later, Roquel, Gee’if and the rest of the dungeon killing party were struggling through chest deep snow drifts. Kerytyn, a member of the Impaled Cats, had been leading them through the snow. The man had grown up far to the south in lands that suffered from seemingly endless cold and snow. He seemed able to spot the deeper drifts and led the group in a meandering route to avoid getting bogged down.
Their progress was slower than they wanted. The first day had been fairly quick and they arrived at the ridge plateau where Dared wanted to have an inn built just as the sun started to vanish behind the mountains. The discovered that Narhert had been delivering stone to the area, and used the piles of stone as shelter that night.
Since then they had been fighting the snow and lack of a clear path. Kerytyn’s experience had allowed the group to be confident that they were travelling in the right direction, but the short days and deep snow kept them from travelling at the speed they wanted.
As they rushed their camping preparations at the end of the fourth day Kalacho was mumbling. “I won’t ever do this again.”
“What?” Kerytyn asked. “Agree to help destroy a dungeon?”
Kalacho laughed. “The dungeon needs to be destroyed and this group might be all we have. It must be done. However, I’d prefer that the next time we have to do it occurs during the summer. We shouldn’t be travelling in the winter.”
“This isn’t too bad,” Kerytyn said. “The wind is calm and it looks like we might get a few days of clear skies. That should turn some of the snow to ice and allow us to travel faster.”
“I’ll believe that when we can see Oersteglen in the distance,” Kalacho grumbled. He turned to dig out some snow so that they could shelter the tents and provide some insulation against the cold winter night air.
***
Four days later the group was moving a bit faster. Kerytyn had found a stand of young trees and cut several walking sticks for the group to use. He had also managed to carve primitive skis, which allowed the group to stay on top of the snow rather than try to push their way through the snow.
Everyone was a bit tired and was thinking about the midday halt to eat, which explained their surprise when a group of men appeared directly in front of them and shouted. “Halt!”
The group came to a ragged stop. Kerytyn just collapsed backwards. His ski-tips pointed to the sky for a moment as the man lay there gasping.
Gee’if managed to push himself forward to stand next to Kerytyn’s prone body. “If you’re bandits, we don’t have anything and we will fight anyways.”
“We’re stopping bandits!” a faintly familiar voice said.
“Thanul?” Roquel asked.
“How did you know that name! Have you got a spy in Oersteglen!” someone shouted.
Gee’if looked over at Roquel. The veteran adventurer had been struggling with the cold and as had become common during the journey had wrapped her legs in fur to try to keep them warm. She struggled forward as the ten men in front of them closed ranks and pointed spears at them.
“Farmers from Oersteglen again?” Roquel asked.
“We’re probably three to four days from the village due to the snow,” Gee’if said. “And if they had been paying attention the attacks would have been from the south, not the east. I’m not sure exactly what they are looking for.”
“Ha!” one of the men said. “We found tracks that indicate two different groups of raiders passed east of Oersteglen and then turned to head east up this valley. You’re probably them coming back to raid us after we let our guard down.
“No,” Gee’if said. “We aren’t. Although I can say the raiders that left those footprints are all dead.”
“All?” the faintly familiar voice asked. “And how can you believe that? If I remember the only one of you who came last time is that bitch who’s all wrapped up in furs. She can’t have helped against the raiders much. I heard they torched Meadowview.”
“Where?” Roquel asked.
“Don’t you find out the names of places you burn?” the familiar voice said.
Roquel shook her head. “Now I know its Thanul.”
“Who’s that?” Gee’if asked.
“He lives in Oersteglen, and I expect the rest of this group is also from there. We ran into them the last time I visited Fairview. They were a half-day’s travel east of Oersteglen patrolling to watch for raiders,” Roquel replied as she bent down to help Kerytyn to his feet.
“And now they are blocking us from going to permanently stop the raids,” Gee’if said.
“It probably won’t be permanent,” Roquel said.
“Roquel, I’m not sure these people want to hear that,” Gee’if said.
Just then there was a shimmering that lit up an area of pristine snow. The adventurers relaxed but the panicked villagers all turned their spears to point it at the light. It seemed to pulse once and then faded leaving behind a ghostly image of a teenage elven girl.
“Faestari,” Roquel said with a nod.
“I noticed you had halted and figured I’d visit a bit early,” Faestari said. “I should warn you that five more kobolds are heading north.”
“How close are they?” Gee’if asked.
“You should run into them before the sun touches the horizon. These ones have fire mana wrapped around their arms. I suspect their attacks will burn as well as rend flesh,” Faestari said.
“A dungeon can do that?” Kerytyn asked. The man immediately shook his head. “No, don’t answer that. I’ve heard of rats that breathe fire in the Lost Hope dungeon.”
“Those are deep inside,” Roquel said. “And rather rare.”
“I never saw one,” Kerytyn admitted. “But I grew up near that dungeon and remember a group of adventurers talking about running into one. From what they said, they lost half of their group to it.”
Roquel nodded. “That sounds about right. People think that it’s just a very large rat with strange red fur. Then they discover its magical defenses and fire breath.”
“What are you talking about? And what is this elvish woman doing?” Thanul demanded.
“Standing in the snow in her bare feet too,” one of his men pointed out.
Everyone looked at Faestari’s feet. She felt a slight blush color the cheeks of her spirit avatar, but remained standing as she watched Roquel.
“Oh, you can turn south once you defeat the kobolds,” Faestari said. “It’s mostly rolling hills and if you just watch the mountains, you’ll be able to follow the range almost all the way to the dungeon.”
“Dungeon again?” Thanul ranted. “Dungeons are places kings and barons throw their prisoners into. What are you talking about?”
Faestari turned to look at the villager. “I’m sorry,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “We have never met. Please allow my friends to complete their mission as it will protect your village far more than patrolling with some old armor and spears will.”
Gee’if laughed as Faestari’s avatar faded away. “She’s right about that. Everyone in our group has fought kobolds from this dungeon before. They would have little trouble with your patrol.”
“We’ve trained and drilled,” Thanul said. “We can handle any ordinary bandit.”
Koristal pushed herself forward on her skis. She had a figurine in her right hand and she raised the hand up as she moved towards the argument. “May Cuan Bi bring enlightenment to the darkness,” she cried.
The figurine lit up with a pale blue light. The light passed over everyone near her. As it did a clear bell rang out.
“What?” Thanul said as the light faded.
One of his men rushed forward. “Damsel, are you really a priestess of Cuan Bi?”
“I am,” Koristal said with a nod. “These adventurers and I go to remove the unnatural from the lands south of your town. Please let us pass.”
The man knelt for a moment. “It shall be,�
�� he said before standing up and marching over to Thanul.
“What? Some dame casts a magic spell and now you act like the whole group is fine?” Thanul asked.
The man who had knelt looked right at Thanul. “She’s a priestess of Cuan Bi. Ladies of the goddess of protection don’t lie. They also would never support a group of bandits. We can escort them if you like, but we must let them go on their way.”
“She could lie and claim to be one,” Thanul said petulantly.
“I’ve seen those figurines before. No one carved it. They are given to true priestesses by the goddess herself,” the man insisted. “We must stop delaying this group. They are not our enemy.”
“Something we argued about with Thanul before,” Roquel said as the group started moving again. The rest of the patrol stepped aside and watched warily as Kerytyn got back in front of Roquel and Koristal and started cutting a new path through the snow.
“Hey! I didn’t say they could leave!” Thanul shouted.
“Let’s just follow them,” the second man said reasonably. “If they are lying, we’ll soon find out.”
The ten men fell in behind Kalacho. They spread out, using the strange large wooden shoes to stay on top of the snow drifts. They had little trouble keeping up with the adventurers as they headed westward.
Thanul took the decision to follow quietly poorly and he was soon jogging along right next to Kalacho. “You really expect me to believe you are travelling in winter to kill a dungeon.”
“Someone has to do it,” Kalacho said. “And we’ve fought these kobolds already. They are tough, but everyone here has defeated one in single combat.”
“I haven’t,” Kerytyn shouted. “But you needed me to guide you. Once we run into those kobolds, I plan on hiding behind Roquel.”
“What makes that woman so special?” Thanul asked disdainfully.
Kalacho looked closely at Thanul. The patrol leader was in his early twenties at best. His brown-haired beard was patchy with some areas of his face clearly not growing regularly yet. “I could start by saying she has grand-children your age,” Kalacho said quietly.
